Minister of Interior Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz this week curbed the powers of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in handling issues such as the harassment of women. Such issues will now be handled by the Commission for Investigation and General Prosecution, the Arab News reported yesterday.

The virtue commission will arrest suspects and hand them over to the police, who will turn the suspects over to the Commission for Investigation with their report.

The measures were taken following complaints from the public about the behavior of some of the members of the virtue commission, which is a religious department, not part of the police.